Members of the York School Committee and administration discuss personnel cuts during a public hearing at York Middle School Wednesday night.

Furor over layoffs in York school district

By Susan Morse

smorse@seacoastonline.com

January 31, 2013 - 2:00 AM

YORK, Maine — Numerous parents and teachers told the York School Committee on Wednesday to restore nine personnel cuts, especially positions in technology.

All the positions being cut are full-time, according to Jim Amoroso, the district's director of finance and operations.

They include two administrative positions: one a director of library and media at York Middle School, and the other a director of technology and information systems in the central superintendent's office; three technology integrators who work with teachers in the elementary, middle and high schools; two York Middle School support staff regular education technicians; and a kindergarten teacher and an education technician brought on this fall because of higher-than-projected kindergarten enrollments.

Superintendent Debra Dunn declined to release the names of those who have already been told of the layoffs, saying the cuts won't be official until the School Committee votes on the budget Tuesday night. A Freedom of Information Act request was made to Amoroso.

The school committee is open to revising the budget, School Committee Chairman Tim Fitzgerald said after the two-hour public-comment session, in which an estimated two dozen of the more than 90 people in attendance asked the committee to rethink the cuts.

"We've obviously heard what they said," Fitzgerald said. "We're still open, we still have a public hearing scheduled."

The public hearing and vote on the budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, in the York Public Library.

At the end of the meeting, the committee went into a closed session for personnel to talk about the layoffs at the recommendation of member John D'Aquila, who said, "We'd be remiss if we don't discuss it."

At least two of those laid off spoke Wednesday: Ashley Baker, a kindergarten teacher, and Tom Charltray, a technology integrator at Village and Coastal Ridge elementary schools, who said he was notified he was being let go the Tuesday after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Charltray moved to York from Las Vegas, and doesn't know what he's going to do at the end of the school year when his job in York is done, he said, but he'll have to start looking for another position elsewhere.

"At first I was sad for myself, and then for the students," Charltray said after the meeting. "I think we do a great job of bolstering technology for students."

The cuts leave four technology integrators in the schools, Amoroso said.

"Technology is not an app," teacher Beth Switzer told the School Committee. "It's about incorporating it into what we're using."

A tearful Baker told committee members she chose York over working in another school district because she knew the town had a great school system.

"Maybe the next person will choose the next district," she said.

The cuts total $868,808: $471,000 in salaries and $397,538 in nonsalaried positions, according to Dunn. The cuts bring the increase in the estimated $26.8 million school budget down to a 2.5 percent increase, from an original 5.47 percent, bringing it more in line with the 2.25 percent increase recommended by the town's advisory committee, the Task Tax Force.

Many questioned why the committee was following the direction of the Task Tax Force, a group that some said was down to four members.

York Middle School Counselor Cyndy Dow said, "Three or four people that seem to be making recommendations that are huge."

Resident Carrie Sayward said, "I believe there is a relationship between property valuation and the quality of education. If we are deemed as a town that cuts its staff, I think we're going to see less people willing to move into the community and pay the property tax."

Teacher Lisa Graziano said, "We're doing a great disservice to gut technology; this is their (the students') world, this is their future. I think we need to think about the kids in York, and not the four people on a task force."

Others said the committee was scared because voters in 2002 rejected the budget, sending it back to the previous year's figure, which forced 26 layoffs.

Parent Larissa Combe said she to moved to York from Massachusetts because of the schools.

"I think you need to go back and ask the people of York to dig deeper," she said.

First-grade teacher Catherine Sherman said, "We're very concerned as teachers. As teachers, we have a lot of support from parents. I think they would support a bigger budget."

Dunn said the talk of layoffs "has halted all talk of teaching and learning. Everyone is just worried."